Marc Minkowski

Offenbach Romantique / Minkowski 4776403

The playing from orchestra and soloist alike is of the highest class and, allied to the generous but not cavernous acoustics of the Grenoble Maison de Culture, has given us a disc that will no doubt give great pleasure to many, and not only Offenbachophiles. Under Minkowski's alert baton, rhythms bounce, tunes sparkle and dynamic contrasts make you jump . . . Pernoo copes with these outrageous demands with unfailing skill . . .

Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens des Louvre have a message for you: Jacques Offenbach was more than a comic-opera composer, more than a cancan man . . . If there is not enough French Romanticism in your life, this is a disc for you.

Record Review /
Jay Nordlinger,
New York Sun / 08. March 2007

. . . there is ample detail to bring out the fine quality of the performance by both Jérôme Pernoo and of the period orchestra under Marc Minkowski. The fill-ups . . . add greatly to the attractions of the disc . . . it is a most welcome issue.

Jérôme Pernoo realizes what I imagine were Keck's hopes when the manuscript was finally put together, deconstructing the cello and taking us to the furthermost reaches of its highest and lowest ranges, its compendium of bowing techniques, sawing, plucking, tapping, caressing. Occasionally, the ensemble drops out, leaving the cello alone, reveling in the acoustics of the Grenoble hall, as if taken with its own performance before this rapt audience. High marks on engineering for capturing every last string vibration such that each note remains distinct from the others in the jagged clusters that color the most frenetic, almost violently bowed, passages.

The . . . long-lost cello concerto, music from his German grand opera Rheinnixen, and ballet music from "Le Voyage dans la lune" demand re-aligned listening priorities: . . . there's substance and innovation under the charm, plus puzzles lurking under the froth. In the cello concerto (which is quite unlike any other), is the military percussion amid bouncy tunes a satire or an homage? Since it's a concert work, Offenbach, intriguingly, didn't have to say. The key element to this disc's success is the smaller-scale period-instrument performances that never oversell the music, while still capturing its considerable energy.